Legion to spend $1 million to help homeless veterans

The Royal Canadian Legion has announced a new national initiative to help homeless veterans, called Leave the Streets Behind.

“We have dedicated half a million dollars to the (provincial) commands to either expand or put in place programs across the country,” says Dominion president Pat Varga.

Varga, who is from Saskatchewan, made the announcement Monday at the Royal Canadian Legion’s 44th Dominion Convention, which is being held in Halifax.

Four provincial commands, including Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command, already have programs to provide help to homeless veterans.

“The program was started by Ontario Command in Toronto through the missions in Toronto. Nova Scotia has picked it up, Alberta is working on it. B.C. has a program as well,” she said in an interview.

The new funds will be used for immediate assistance for veterans and to connect them to long-term support from community agencies and Veterans Affairs.

Legion provincial commands are also expected to raise $500,000 for the homeless veterans initiative.

“Most of the dollars will be on a matching basis, so in the end it is a million dollars that will go toward helping the homeless and near homeless across our country,” Varga said.

She did not have estimates of how many Canadian veterans are homeless.

Recently published research shows that a typical homeless veteran in Canada is 55 years old and left the Armed Forces 27 years ago after six or seven years of service. Most are single or divorced and are better educated than most of the others living on the street.

Most served on a base rather than in war zones. Upon leaving the Armed Forces, they had a terrible time adjusting to civilian life, turning mainly to alcohol or perhaps drugs as a crutch.

Varga conceded the money represents just a start and won’t fix the problem.

“We know that this is going to have to continue and hopefully, someday, it won’t be an issue anymore.”

Varga said that many of the veterans on the streets in Canada are young.

“I’m not talking, as we call them, traditional veterans. I’m talking young men and women who need our help.

“I was told this weekend that we just helped a 27-year-old Afghanistan veteran, who is living on the streets. What does that say about our country. We owe him.”

The money for the homeless initiative comes from the poppy campaign, Varga said.

Nova Scotia recently started a program for homeless and “near homeless” veterans, said Steve Wessel, second vice-president of Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command.

“We have just developed this program here in Nova Scotia within the last year.”

It focuses on working with veterans groups, community agencies and Veterans Affairs to find homeless veterans and link them up to the support they need.

Nova Scotia legions have a backpack to provide veterans on the street with necessities, bus passes, and grocery gift cards, he said.

Wessel said the problem of homeless veterans is not as acute in this province as in some larger centres. But the problem still exists.

Some veterans with medical issues “couch surf” and are not aware they are entitled to assistance.

“It is very difficult to tell the difference between a homeless person and a homeless veteran because they just won’t tell you that they have this military background.

“They are very difficult to find. There may be 18 to 20 veterans that need our assistance right away but there are more people out there that we don’t even know about.”

B.C./Yukon Command has a transition house, Cockerell House, for veterans in Victoria, while Alberta-NWT Command has operated a food bank for more than 20 years for veterans and has a transition house, Maddison House, in the Calgary area.